Reconsidering the links between poverty, international labour migration, and agrarian change: critical insights from Nepal

Journal of Peasant Studies

Volumn 43, Issue 1, 2016, Pages 39-63

  Sunam, Ramesh K ^a   McCarthy, John F ^b  

^a AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

^b CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL FORESTRY RESEARCH   (Indonesia)

Author keywords

agrarian change; dispossession; labour migration; land; Nepal; rural poverty; South Asia

Indexed keywords

AGRARIAN CHANGE; AGRICULTURAL CHANGE; INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION; LABOR MARKET; LABOR MIGRATION; POVERTY; RURAL ECONOMY;

NEPAL;

EID: 84955177881     PISSN: 03066150     EISSN: 17439361     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2015.1041520     Document Type: Article

References (72)

1. J.Adhikari,, and M.Hobley. 2013. Everyone is leaving–Who will sow our fields? The effects of migration from khotang district to the Gulf and Malaysia. Kathmandu: Nepal Institute of Development Studies (NIDS).
2. A.H.Akram-Lodhi,, S.M.BorrasJr, and C.Kay. 2007. Land, poverty and livelihoods in an Era of Globalization: Perspectives from developing and transition countries. London: Routledge.
3. Asia Foundation. 2013. Labour migration trends and patterns: Bangladesh, India, and Nepal 2013. Kathmandu: The Asia Foundation.
4. J.Basnet,. 2011. Politics of land. The Kathmandu Post. http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2011/07/21/oped/politics-of-land/224276.html (accessed September 10, 2012).
5. B.Baulch,. 2011. Why poverty persists: Poverty dynamics in Asia and Africa. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.
6. H.Bernstein,. 1992. Poverty and the Poor. In Rural livelihoods: Crises and responses, eds. H.Bernstein, B.Crow, and H.Johnson, 13–26. Oxford: Oxford University Press, The Open University.
7. D.Bhattarai,. 2013. What the guardian did not understand. In Kantipur, Kathmandu. http://www.lalitmag.com/2013/10/what-the-guardian-did-not-understand/ (accessed October 5, 2013).
8. B.Bhattarai, Basundhara, R.BeilinRuth, and R.FordRebecca. 2015. Gender, agrobiodiversity, and climate change: A study of adaptation practices in the Nepal Himalayas. World Development 70, no. 0: 122–32. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.01.003
9. K.Bird,, and P.Deshingkar. 2009. Circular migration in India. Policy Brief No 4, Overseas Development Institute. London: Overseas Development Institute. http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/download/2506.pdf (accessed January 25, 2013).
10. P.Blaikie,, J.Cameron, and D.Seddon. 2002. Understanding 20 years of change in west-Central Nepal: Continuity and Change in Lives and Ideas. World Development 30, no. 7: 1255–70. doi: 10.1016/S0305-750X(02)00031-1
11. J.Breman,. 2007. The poverty regime in village India: Half a century of work and life at the bottom of the rural economy in South Gujarat. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
12. T.Bruslé, 2012. What kind of place is this? Daily life, privacy and the inmate metaphor in a Nepalese workers’ Labour camp (Qatar). South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal 6: 1–25.
13. D.F.Bryceson,, and V.Jamal. 1997. Farewell to farms: De-agrarianisation and employment in Africa. Aldershot: Ashgate.
14. CBS. 2011. Nepal living standard survey 2010/2011: Statistical report vol. I and II. Kathmandu: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
15. J.H.Cohen,, and İ.Sirkeci. 2011. Cultures of migration. Texas: University of Texas Press.
16. J.Connell,, B.Dasgupta, R.Laishley, and M.Lipton. 1976. Migration from rural areas: The evidence from village studies. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
17. M.Davis, 2006. Planet of slums. London: Verso.
18. B.Davis,, G.Carletto, and P.C.Winters. 2010. Migration, transfers and economic decision making among agricultural households: an introduction. The Journal of Development Studies 46, no. 1: 1–13. doi: 10.1080/00220380903198000
19. H.De Haas, 2005. International migration, remittances and development: myths and facts. Third World Quarterly 26, no. 8: 1269–84. doi: 10.1080/01436590500336757
20. A.De Janvry,, E.Sadoulet, and N.Zhu. 2005. The role of non-farm incomes in reducing rural poverty and inequality in China. Working paper. http://are.berkeley.edu/sadoulet: 1–29 (accesed January 12, 2012).
21. DoFE. 2014. Labour migration for employment: A status report for Nepal: 2013/2014. Kathmandu: Department of Foreign Employment, Government of Nepal.
22. A.Du Toit, 2004. Social exclusion’ discourse and chronic poverty: A South African case study. Development and Change 35, no. 5: 987–1010. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7660.2004.00389.x
23. F.Ellis,. 2000. Rural livelihoods and diversity in developing countries. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
24. FAO, WFP, and IFAD. 2012. The state of food insecurity in the world 2012: Economic growth is necessary but not sufficient to accelerate reduction of hunger and malnutrition, FAO, Rome. Rome: FAO.
25. B.Flyvbjerg,. 2002. Making social science matter: Why social inquiry fails and how it can succeed again. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
26. H.N.Gartaula,, L.Visser, and A.Niehof. 2010. Feminisation of agriculture as an effect of male out-migration: Unexpected outcomes from Jhapa District, Eastern Nepal. The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences 5, no. 2: 565–78.
27. O.Gibson,, and P.Pattisson. 2014. ‘Death toll among Qatar's 2022 World Cup workers revealed.” In The Guardian.
28. GON. 2011. Economic survey: Fiscal year 2010/11. Kathmandu: Ministry of Finance, Government of Nepal (GoN).
29. K.Hart,. 2008. Karl Polanyi's legacy. Development and Change 39, no. 6: 1135–43. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7660.2008.00532.x
30. H.Kaspar,. 2005. “I am the Household Head Now!”: Gender aspects of out-migration for labour in Nepal. Kathmandu: Nepal Institute of Development Studies.
31. C.Kay,. 2009. Development strategies and rural development: Exploring synergies, eradicating poverty. The Journal of Peasant Studies 36, no. 1: 103–37. doi: 10.1080/03066150902820339
32. M.Kollmair,, S.Manandhar, B.Subedi, and S.Thieme. 2006. New figures for old stories: Migration and remittances in Nepal. Migration Letters 3, no. 2: 151–60.
33. A.Krishna,. 2006. Pathways out of and into poverty in 36 villages of Andhra Pradesh, India. World Development 34, no. 2: 271–88. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2005.08.003
34. A.Krishna,. 2010. Who became poor, who escaped poverty, and why? Developing and using a retrospective methodology in five countries. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 29, no. 2: 351–72. doi: 10.1002/pam.20495
35. P.Kristjanson,, N.Mango, A.Krishna, M.Radeny, and N.Johnson. 2010. Understanding poverty dynamics in Kenya. Journal of International Development 22, no. 7: 978–96. doi: 10.1002/jid.1598
36. K.Lahiri-Dutt,. 2014. Experiencing and coping with change: Women-headed households in the Eastern Gangetic Plains. ACIAR Technical Reports No. 83. Canberra: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.
37. J.Lerche,. 2010. From “Rural Labour” to “Classes of Labour”: Class fragmentation, caste and class struggle at the bottom of the indian labour hierarchy. In The comparative political economy of development: Africa and South Asia, eds. B.Harriss-White and J.Heyer, 64–85. London: Routledge.
38. T.M.Li, 2011. Centering labor in the land grab debate. The Journal of Peasant Studies 38, no. 2: 281–98. doi: 10.1080/03066150.2011.559009
39. M.Lokshin,, M.Bontch-Osmolovski, and E.Glinskaya. 2007. Work-related migration and poverty reduction in Nepal. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 4231.
40. J.F.McCarthy, 2010. Processes of inclusion and adverse incorporation: Oil palm and agrarian change in Sumatra, Indonesia. The Journal of Peasant Studies 37, no. 4: 821–50. doi: 10.1080/03066150.2010.512460
41. D.Mosse,. 2010. A relational approach to durable poverty, inequality and power. The Journal of Development Studies 46, no. 7: 1156–78. doi: 10.1080/00220388.2010.487095
42. R.Munck,. 2013. The Precariat: A view from the South. Third World Quarterly 34, no. 5: 747–62. doi: 10.1080/01436597.2013.800751
43. J.Mushongah,, and I.Scoones. 2012. Livelihood change in rural Zimbabwe over 20 Years. The Journal of Development Studies 48, no. 9: 1241–57. doi: 10.1080/00220388.2012.671474
44. NRB. 2012. Impact evaluation of remittances: A case study of Dhanusha district. Kathmandu: Nepal Rastra Bank.
45. F.Osella,, and C.Osella. 2000. Social mobility in Kerala: Modernity and identity in conflict. London: Pluto Press.
46. S.Paoletti,, E.Taylor-Nicholso, B.Sijapati, and B.Farbenblum. 2014. Migrant workers’ access to justice at home: Nepal.http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/migrant-nepal-report-english-20140610_1.pdf (accessed May 18, 2014).
47. T.Piketty,. 2014. Capital in the twenty-first century. Cambrdige, MA: Harvard University Press.
48. J.D.van der Ploeg,, and Y.Jingzhong. 2010. Multiple job holding in rural villages and the Chinese road to development. Journal of Peasant Studies 37, no. 3: 513–30. doi: 10.1080/03066150.2010.494373
49. E.Poertner,, M.Junginger, and U.Müller-Böker. 2011. Migration in far western Nepal. Critical Asian Studies 43, no. 1: 23–47. doi: 10.1080/14672715.2011.537850
50. K.Polanyi,. 2001. The great transformation: The political and economic origins of our time author. Boston: Beacon Press.
51. B.Pritchard,, A.Rammohan, M.Sekher, S.Parasuraman, and C.Choithani. 2013. Feeding India: Livelihoods, entitlements and capabilities. Abingdon: Earthscan.
52. D.Ratha,, S.Mohapatra, and E.Scheja. 2011. Impact of migration on economic and social development: A review of evidence and emerging issues. Policy Research Working Paper 5558. Washington, DC: World Bank.
53. J.Rigg,. 2006. Land, farming, livelihoods, and poverty: Rethinking the links in the rural South. World Development 34, no. 1: 180–202. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2005.07.015
54. B.Rogaly,. 2009. Spaces of work and everyday life: Labour geographies and the agency of unorganised temporary migrant workers. Geography Compass 3, no. 6: 1975–87. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2009.00290.x
55. C.Sapkota,. 2013. Remittances in Nepal: Boon or bane? The Journal of Development Studies 49, no. 10: 1316–1331. doi: 10.1080/00220388.2013.812196
56. I.Scoones,. 2009. Livelihoods perspectives and rural development. Journal of Peasant Studies 36, no. 1: 171–96. doi: 10.1080/03066150902820503
57. D.Seddon,, J.Adhikari, and G.Gurung. 2001. The new lahures: Foreign employment and remittance economy of Nepal. Kathmandu: Nepal Institute of Development Studies.
58. D.Seddon,, J.Adhikari, and G.Gurung. 2002. Foreign labor migration and the remittance economy of Nepal. Critical Asian Studies 34, no. 1: 19–40. doi: 10.1080/146727102760166581
59. S.R.Sharma,, B.R.Upreti, and U.Müller-Böker. 2014. Negotiating access to land in Nepal. Journal of Contemporary Asia 44, no. 3: 521–539. doi: 10.1080/00472336.2013.868022
60. R.Skeldon,. 2002. Migration and poverty: Ambivalent relationships. Asia-Pacific Population Journal 17, no. 3: 67–82.
61. G.Standing,. 2011. The precariat: The new dangerous class. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
62. R.Sunam, Ramesh. 2014. Marginalised dalits in international labour migration: Reconfiguring economic and social relations in nepal. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 40, no. 12: 2030–48. doi: 10.1080/1369183X.2014.948393
63. S.Thieme,. 2008. Sustaining livelihoods in multi-local settings: Possible theoretical linkages between transnational migration and livelihood studies. Mobilities 3, no. 1: 51–71. doi: 10.1080/17450100701797315
64. S.Thieme,, and A.Ghimire. 2014. Making migrants visible in post-MDG debates. Sustainability 6, no. 1: 399–415. doi: 10.3390/su6010399
65. S.Thieme,, and S.Wyss. 2005. Migration patterns and remittance transfer in Nepal: A case study of Sainik Basti in Western Nepal. International Migration 43, no. 5: 59–98.
66. TKP. 2010. Fertile land lost to real estate in morang. The Kathmandu Post. http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2010/04/08/Business/Fertile-land-lost-to-real-estate-in-Morang/207026/ (accessed May 3, 2014).
67. P.Vandergeest,. 2012. Deagrarianization and re-agrarianization: Multiple pathways of change on the Sathing Phra Peninsula. In Revisiting rural places: Pathways to poverty and prosperity in Southeast Asia, eds. J.Rigg and P.Vandergeest. Singapore: National University of Singapore Press.
68. J.D.Van der Ploeg, 2008. The new peasantries: Struggles for autonomy and sustainability in an era of empire and globalization. London: Earthscan.
69. A.Walker,. 2012. Thailand's political peasants: Power in the modern rural economy. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.
70. H.White,. 2002. Combining quantitative and qualitative approaches in poverty analysis. World Development 30, no. 3: 511–22. doi: 10.1016/S0305-750X(01)00114-0
71. World Bank. 2007. World development report 2008: Agriculture for development. Washington, DC: World Bank.
72. World Bank. 2014. Migration and development brief 22. World Bank. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPROSPECTS/Resources/334934-1288990760745/MigrationandDevelopmentBrief22.pdf (accessed May 13, 2014).